NES-to-Arcade Cabinets – Upright Nintendo Action

Just today I noticed this eye-catching picture on my Flickr feed and it sparked some great memories from the 80’s. I know I’ve seen this thing before, but I can’t really dig up any solid details about it.

It looks like a in-store display, but it also seems to have storage drawers under the screen area. The person that post the picture supposedly has these for sale, but I’m not sure how to contact him.

In my searches for Nintendo cabinet information, I was reminded of the Nintendo Player’s Choice arcade machines that I used to play with when I was a kid. Between those store display cabinets and the Player’s Choice machines, I realized an NES stand-up machine would be especially cool for those looking to having something different to contrast traditional arcade machines.

It’s essentially a MAME cabinet with an NES instead of a MAME PC, but also has special places for two NES Advantage joysticks and two NES Max controllers to provide solid controller options. While the artwork isn’t exactly the greatest, it seems to be a well-designed cabinet. The site includes links to the plans for the cabinet in case anyone is up for building their own.

2 Comments

As far as your comment goes about the artwork “not being the greatest,” if you’d read the article about this setup you’d have seen that it was built by a 13-year-old in wood shop class back in the ’80s. His dad painted the machine and his mom did the artwork. Even grandma had a hand in it (the red pad between the controllers).

I think this whole set-up is friggin’ awesome, and certainly unique. As early as it was done, it makes this guy a real innovator. And you can’t help but admire the family unity evidenced by the project.